My post yesterday about erosion at Bathtub Beach brought a lot of discussion and questions about when the inlet at Peck’s Lake broke through to the Indian River Lagoon as well as beach erosion in general.

Later in the day, my mother sent me some old Whiticar family photos of the Aurthur Ruhnke family. Her friend, John Whiticar, had shared these photos awhile back. I had seen them before as well, and in light of the erosion situation, I thought I would share them today. I often share the gorgeous IRL photography of Mr John Whiticar of the famous Whiticar Boatworks family (http://whiticar.com). John’s photos of the Ruhnke family’s photographs are outstanding and quite beautiful, especially in the black and white of the 1960s.

So whether looking at my own family photo on the beach in 1971 above, or the Whiticar/Ruhnke photos of the same era, one thing is for sure: the shorelines and tree lines may change, and the shifting tides of time may change as well; but one thing is constant: people, especially kids, love the beaches and shorelines of our Atlantic Ocean and St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon area….Enjoy!

Thanks for the fine photos, Jacqui. What should have been done to my mind, instead of closing the “new” inlet (inlets had opened there before as I recall), was to encourage it and allow the St. Lucie inlet to fill with sand.

Peck Lake faces a natural (14ft? deep) break in the reef off shore, which is also the break that St. Lucie outflow naturally seeks if it doesn’t go straight out to sea. Much less maintenance dredging inside and outside would be required than is now required to keep the St. Lucie open. The jetties might have been much shorter.

But the Corps didn’t take kindly to the Peck Lake inlet filling in a very brief stretch of “their” AICW (peanuts to remove compared to inside the St. Lucie).

Thank you Ted. The (ACIW) Atlantic Inter Coastal Waterway, as most dredging projects of the time was us/the ACOE trying forcing nature” instead of “working with nature.” This has been our problem the whole time…..We are now going to be forced to work with Nature as of late, she is getting the upper hand….